Category: Politics


May 29, 2024
0
intothisshadow

European Elections

European Elections

I voted in the European elections today while out getting my new glasses. There was a voting spot in the shopping centre. I figured I better vote now or I’ll probably forget, or can’t be bothered to make a separate trip to a voting spot later. There’s no voting spot in any of the places I go to every week, so if I didn’t do it now I’d need make a separate extra trip just to vote. So it was best to do it right away, on this first advance voting day.

I’m really fed up with elections being so close together – feels like I’ve been doing nothing but preparing to vote for 1,5 years now! First the parliamentary election last year, then the presidential election in January and now European elections. I was soo tempted to not vote in the European elections this time. There was also the fact that the person I usually vote, because she so knowledgeable, knows her facts and argues her side well, is running for MEP now, and I don’t want her to leave domestic politics the European parliament. She’s one of our best politicians because of the aforementioned qualities, acknowledged so even by her opponents. But I also thought she maybe wants a change of pace from domestic politics and I’m 100% certain she’d make an excellent MEP – but I don’t want her to leave the domestic politics! So the actual decision on who to vote for was both very easy and very hard at the same time. And a big part of me feels like the national elections are far more important and these Euro ones don’t matter, but that’s not true and what with predictions for the right wing joining far right wing forces in these elections and winning, I couldn’t not vote.

At least there’s now one vote that says NO to right wing and far right wing values and YES to left values.

But I’m so fed up with elections – there were 3 elections too close together. Just when one ended, you already had to start thinking about the next one! There’s been a lot of noise about combining some of the elections, and I think I agree.



Jun 19, 2023
0
intothisshadow

Beatings will continue until morale improves. Or you die. Or maybe you just die.

Beatings will continue until morale improves. Or you die. Or maybe you just die.

The new right-wing goverment’s programme is out and it’s official: Kokoomus and Perussuomalaiset have not a drop of humanity in them. And RKP really doesn’t care about anything but the status of Finnish Swedish language in Finland. The fourth party in the new government is Kristillisdemokraatit and I don’t know what they want, but they look happy to be in the fuck-the-workers-and-the-poor government. And they’re supposed to be Christians.

The new government will be driving to make a permanent paradigm shift in several huge areas – cutting economic equality, social equality, labour rights, cripple the unions. Several of the planned cuts affect the same groups of vulnerable people on a level that their constitutional rights will be in jeopardy. I’m one of those people, and I’m in more than one vulnerable group. Because “economy needs to be saved”. And somehow it’s only the wage earners and the poor and sick who can do it.

The new government is actively hostile to vast majority of the nation: the wage earners, the poor, the sick, part time workers and… just in general, anyone who needs any social security benefits either temporarily or permanently to make ends meet because of almost any reason. In addition to cutting many social security and unemployment benefits and labour rights, they’re going to increase taxes on the lowest bracket to the next one (4% increase), so the cost of things like food and medicine will go up because of the tax increase… but they will lower the cost of gas to please drivers and Perussuomalaiset.

There are no planned incentives or beatings to companies to make hiring full time people attractive, or to stop tax evasion or anything else. Not even a mention that companies are the other part of “get a full time job” equation! Or to make the rich take part in “saving the economy” – instead the rich get a tax cut.

I’ve seen numbers like 90% of the people will suffer, and 10% (the richest) will benefit.

The thing is that Sipilä tried to in the same vein in 2015-2019 (Kokoomus and Perussuomalaiset was in government then too along with Keskusta. That government broke Perussuomalaiset apart.) and it was embarrasing how many of their law drafts crashed head first into the constitution, or Finlands legally binding international agreements. I’m hopeful the worst of their attempts will be crash into them again or there will be nothing left of the wellfare state/society by the time they’re done.

All the other parts of the programme suck too, such as the plans for environmental/climate change/green energy, or humanitarian immigration or work based immigration.

There is only one positive thing in their programme and that is the creation of a new single benefit that’d be easier to apply, would combine and cover several of the current benefits such as unemployement, sick leave, parent leave and others. It’d be a step towards universal basic income (UBI), and the base research for that new benefit or at least a re-haul of social security has been in the works for like a decade, with pretty much all social scientists and parties agreeing being necessary re-haul. The problem is that it’s now Kokoomus that will take the lead on it – so the new benefit will likely too much low to be actually useful and will contain control elements unlike the real UBI. Because there’s nothing Kokoomus hates like they hate people who have no money.



Apr 3, 2023
2
intothisshadow

Random Thoughts – Finnish Politics

Random Thoughts – Finnish Politics

Finland becomes a Member of NATO tomorrow, Tuesday April 4, 2023.

I was against joining NATO my entire life, life most Finns, until Russia invaded Ukraine. That changed my mind in a single week. But, I appreciate being a peace builder and unallied country – which we won’t be anymore starting tomorrow – and so now I’m feeling conflicted. I’m glad we’re joining NATO, but kinda not.

So many things have happened in the last three years that I never thought I’d see in my life time.

I’m won’t be making more posts about Finnish politics and this won’t turn into a political blog, never fear… but I have to say this.

Finland had general election yesterday, and two right-wing parties won and centre-left social-democratic party became third. (More behind the cut). Continue reading